The Squirrel Killer
by funkymoleperson
Summary: A YuanMartel one-shot, featuring some odd incidents with squirrels and good old fluffiness. Rated for language, and a dead squirrel.


**This story is dedicated to two people. One, is my little brother, who will never read this fic, but did throw the rock **

**into the canyon that day that inspired me, and the other, is my dear friend Brianna, who stumbled upon the dead **

**rabbit that furthered my ideas, which, well, gave me a start on this one-shot featuring a wonderful couple – **

**Yuan/Martel. Only, dear readers, this won't be half eaten up by Mithos cursing Yuan to oblivion, which seems to **

**be the center of all the Yuan/Martel fics out there...Now, the ****disclaimer and spoiler warning: I don't own Tales of **

**Symphonia. This story does contain spoilers; so far all of ****mine have. You are now informed, so no suing or **

**complaints. Thank you.**

* * *

The Squirrel Killer

"Fireball!" Mithos muttered, concentrating hard on the campfire logs in front of him. The spell crackled and fused, and not fire sprung up from the wood. Kratos snorted,

"Pathetic."

Mithos looked up from his spell with a hurt expression on his face, "You know, Teacher, you're supposed to be _teaching_ me, not _insulting_ me. So tell me what I'm doing wrong and how I can improve."

Kratos rolled his eyes, "If I _tell_ you how to do it, then how will you learn? You're concentrating too hard on your target, and too little on your spell. _Think_ about what it is you want to do. Then do it."

A little distance off, Yuan and Martel were sitting in the grass, getting out the ingredients that the group would need for breakfast that would be cooked on the fire that Mithos was trying to start. Yuan glanced over at the bickering pair and raised an eyebrow,

"Shouldn't we intercede into their argument?"

Martel looked up from rummaging through their packs, tucking a stray green hair behind her ear, "Oh, they're just fine." When Yuan continued to look doubtful, she smiled, "They are being quite friendly right now; both of them are too stubborn to show it on the outside, though."

Yuan just shook his head, "Sometimes I wonder how you know these things, Martel. To me, it looks like an insult fest." Martel just smiled at him.

"I'm concentrating, but it's not working!" Mithos's voice was a tad high pitched now. Kratos folded his arms,

"Don't lose your temper, it will break your concentration."

Martel finished fishing out what they needed and stood up, looking down at Yuan, "Shall we go for a walk while they are busy figuring out how to make breakfast?" She could have sworn she saw the edges of Yuan's mouth twitch as he stood up, but the man never smiled, so maybe Martel was just imagining things.

However, the two older half-elves would not make it out of the area. It seemed that Mithos had finally snapped, "That's it, I give up! I'm summoning Efreet!" Kratos's frown deepened and he took a step back as Mithos began his summons. Martel, however, was genuinely worried. When Mithos started summoning, everyone in the vicinity was at risk. Grabbing Yuan's hand, she dragged him out of the camp at a gallop, her long green hair flying out behind her in the wind.

Yuan wore his hair back in a ponytail so that it wouldn't get in his face, but Martel refused to restrain her hair, and now with _her_ pulling_ him_ hickety pickety down the road, _it_ was in _his_ face. He prayed that she would have the sense to let go soon, or he might trip and fall, and make a totally un-Yuan like fool of himself. And, in front of her…

Finally, Martel stopped running. Blushing, she quickly let go of Yuan's hand at the look he gave her. The man was so hard to read sometimes, damnit! She could detect even Kratos's slight emotional changes, but never Yuan's. He was a closed book. A closed, locked, bolted, and shoved in a huge safe guarded by elves with sharp little throwing knives book.

Yuan was bored, but Martel didn't know this, of course. Well, he was actually quite enjoying just being with his friend…well, they were "friends", but he privately thought that she was the prettiest, smartest, most charismatic, caring, wonderful woman on earth, and how long had he known her? Well, ok, it had been some years now, but the point was that being "friends" wasn't exactly what Yuan would have liked to call them, but that was what they were.

Yuan leaned over to pick up a rock, his blue hair fluidly moving across his shoulders like little streams connecting into rivers, then flowing into waterfalls, well, maybe Martel was going a little overboard in her mental picture of the scene, but it didn't matter a couple seconds later when Yuan began to toss the rock up and down. Up and down. Martel went from amused to annoyed sharply.

"Yuan!"

Yuan smiled innocently at her, looking positively gorgeous, how did the half elf _do_ that to her? Martel loved being with Yuan, but at the same time she couldn't stand it. It was odd that way…she was perfectly fine with the other guys in her group, but when it came to Yuan…sometimes she could get completely disoriented, or be immersed in something, and look up, and then he would be there, and she'd forget everything. It was thoroughly exhilarating and annoying. Still, it mattered not. Yuan obviously did not seem to have the same problems.

"Would you stop that?"

Martel's voice was clearly irritated, so Yuan promptly, and rather carelessly, threw the rock off, into the bushes. However, the result of his action had not been what he had intended. Instead of Martel's face clearing, smiling, and then hearing a "thank you" or something of the nature, Yuan suddenly found a shrieking, absolutely furious woman standing in front of him.

"YUAN! How could you…without even thinking…YOU COULD HAVE HIT SOMEONE WITH THAT!"

Yuan cowered nervously under his friends hail of rage, "Oh, but Martel, it was off the road, no _normal_ people would be walking around there. Besides, we would have heard something if I hit someone."

Martel's face was heating up, and her eyes flashed dangerously, "You're so insensitive! You might have hit a squirrel, did you think about that? Hmmmm?"

Yuan could not help but let out a chuckle, "Honestly, Martel, squirrels are too fast for that sort of thing. I'm sure that everything is all right. Oh, and you're so cute when your angry."

He was _grinning_. Either the world was over, or Martel was completely losing her mind. She blushed furiously at the comment, but neatly avoided reacting other wise to it, by retorting,

"Huh, trying to change the subject, are you? _No_ concern for anyone but yourself. Arrogant bastard."

Yuan's eyes widened at the insult, "Why, Martel, I didn't know you _knew_ that kind of language! You shock me!"

"This is from the king of profanity," Martel said dryly, marching on ahead of him down the path. Yuan paused for a moment, slightly bemused at how she could hold her cool like that. But then, she had blushed when he had called her cute. Still, it meant nothing. He had just complimented her, and she was flattered. Sure, easy and simple.

Martel was ten feet ahead of Yuan by now, and she turned, hands on her hips to call out to him, "Coming, Mr. Squirrel Killer?" Yuan smiled mischievously,

"Oh, I'm coming all right, Ms. Curser of Blue Haired Half Elves."

Martel paused uncertainly, slightly uneasy at Yuan's expression. Not that she was afraid of him or anything, she trusted him with her life, but she didn't quite know what to expect, having never seen him acting quite this animated before. Yuan took the opportunity, with Martel's momentary vulnerability to skip over and, in a sudden, rather impulsive rush of emotion, the kind that he had worked all his life to master control over, but lost to just this once, kissed her on the forehead. He hadn't been lying when he said that she looked cute when she was angry. Actually, any emotion Martel ever displayed was adorable, but he would never admit it.

Martel froze. A shiver ran down her spine as Yuan pressed his lips to her forehead, and she felt absolutely blissful for that one moment. It was odd, she could never understand the fellow, but she hoped with all her heart that this wasn't a lie, that it was true, that it was actually happening to her, Martel, the lowly half elf who had been banished from Heimdall years before with her younger brother.

When Yuan pulled away, Martel was standing looking bemused, her eyes unfocused and her mouth curved into a half smile. He swallowed, realizing what he had just done, and felt absolutely idiotic. _What_ the hell had he just done? Turning away and starting to move back in the direction of camp, Yuan tried to make his escape with as much dignity as he could muster. However, a gentle hand made contact with his wrist before he could move more than a step further,

"Yuan."

Martel had only said his name, but it managed to cause his body to stop and refuse to go any farther. Even if she totally hated him for what he'd done, or didn't feel the same way about him or anything, Martel had total command over his mind, body and soul. No amount of willpower could carry him away now. Turning slowly, hesitantly, fearfully, Yuan chanced a look into Martel's eyes,

"Y…yes, Mar…tel…?"

Martel's eyes were confused, and sad. Oh! He hadn't hurt her, did he? Oh damnit, Yuan hadn't the faintest idea of how to deal with women.

"Did you…I mean, did you really kiss me just a moment ago?" she asked softly, her voice wavering. Yuan swallowed hard and nodded. Martel faintly touched the spot where he had kissed her and then looked him in the eyes,

"Why?"

Yuan had never had so much trouble speaking in his life. He'd fought countless battles, dealt with so many people over the years of his life, and yet for once, against one single person, one woman in all the world, he was suddenly unable to mask his feelings.

"It's because I…I…"

He closed his eyes tightly, feeling Martel's hand tighten slightly against his wrist. It felt so warm…

"It's because I somehow fell in love with you?" he mumbled in a slightly grumpy tone. Suddenly Martel laughed, making him jump in surprise. His eyes flung open to see her smiling at him, her eyes slightly red as if she had been on the verge, or was on the verge of tears, and just in time to see her gently reach up to touch his cheek with her other hand, and pull herself up to kiss him. On the lips.

Yuan found that he could no longer think. Martel, _Martel_ was kissing him. _Him!_ He kissed her back, drawing his arms around her into a tight embrace, feeling very warm, and perfectly content and stress-free since he had not been in a long time.

Martel was lost in Yuan's eyes. She couldn't believe that the man with the trap door for a mouth had actually told her that he loved her. And she loved him too, but had hardly dared to ever believe that she was deserving enough to have that returned. It was the greatest feeling in the world to be loved, and even after they had broken out of the kiss, both blushing furiously, Martel wished that she would never leave his embrace.

Eventually that, too, had to end, but as they walked back to camp, Martel and Yuan held hands, silently cherishing just being together, with all the confusion and worries gone, only complete contentment at being in each other's presence. The peace would only be broken, when, as camp came into sight, Martel tripped over a dead squirrel.

"YUAN!"

"I swear I didn't, Martel, this wasn't where I threw that stupid rock!"

"I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, YOU UNSENSITIVE MORON!"

"Do you still love me?"

"I'll have to consider that!"

Yuan looked over at Martel, genuinely worried for a moment, but then he saw that she was laughing, and… all was well with the world.

_Desperate for changing  
Starving for truth  
I'm closer to where I started  
I'm chasing after you  
I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you _

_Forgetting all I'm lacking  
Completely incomplete  
I'll take your invitation  
You take all of me _

_Now I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you  
I'm living for the only thing I know  
I'm running and I'm not quite sure where to go  
And I don't know what I'm diving into  
Just hanging by a moment here with you ("Hanging By A Moment" Lifehouse)_

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**Another one of the one-shots that have been dying to be written is done! Yay! Now, I really need to work on **

**"Finding Raine", but I couldn't resist writing this story in between those chapters. I have all these one-shot ideas, **

**and well…anyway, I hope that you liked it, even though it was kinda out of character and a little unrealistic, but if **

**you didn't keep your flames to yourselves, and all that. If you liked it, on the other hand…happy reviews are **

**always welcome!**


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